blackberry picking poem analysis essay

Blackberry-Picking

By Seamus Heaney

In ‘Blackberry-Picking’ the speaker is recalling a recurring scene from his youth: each August, he would pick blackberries and relish in their sweet taste.

Seamus Heaney

Nationality: Irish

After he passed away in 2013, the world went into grieving.

Poem Analyzed by Jamie Jenson

English Teacher, with a B.A. Honors in English and a M.Sc. in Education

Heaney, a prolific poet from Northern Ireland, won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetry in 1995. Heaney published his first book of poetry in the 1960s, and it was the start of a very productive and successful writing career.  In addition to his writing, Heaney was also an accomplished professor and speaker , often traveling the globe to give talks about life and literature. His poems often included glimpses into rural life, and ‘Blackberry-Picking’ is one of his finest examples of this. Heaney died in 2013.

Explore Blackberry-Picking

• 2 Detailed Analysis
• 4 Structure and Form
• 5 Literary Devices
• 6 Historical Background
• 8 Similar Poetry

‘Blackberry-Picking’ by Seamus Heaney is a beautiful poem about the speaker’s childhood and the times he spent picking blackberries.

In this poem, which you can read in full here, the speaker recalls a recurring scene from his youth: each August, he would pick blackberries and relish in their sweet taste. The week would start with just one ripe blackberry, but soon, all of the other berries would be ripe for the picking. Blackberry picking was a fleeting activity, however; the fruits would only last about a week before they turned sour and died. Every year, the speaker confesses, he would hope that they would stay longer, even though he always knew that they would not.

Detailed Analysis

The speaker of the poem is taking a nostalgic look back at the summers of his childhood, when each August, depending on the weather, he and his friends or family members would spend one week picking blackberries and delighting in their beautiful colors and delicious taste.

The speaker wastes no time setting up the scene for the reader. Heaney writes,

Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.

From these first two lines, the reader can glean that ‘Blackberry-Picking’ takes place in late summer, probably in the countryside, since blackberries do not normally grow in a city setting. The speaker also informs the reader that conditions had to be just so in order for this to happen. If the summer brought heavy rain and sun, the blackberries would ripen. The experience would not happen if the conditions were not just so.

Additionally, the reader can also assume this event takes place in the past with the verb phrase “would ripen.” The passage of time has not tempered the images the speaker remembers, and the rest of the poem is full of beautiful pictures of the natural world. The speaker then informs the reader that the process started out slowly each year.

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot (…)

Heaney’s diction is also important to note. Instead of calling the blackberry fruit or berry, he uses the metaphor of a clot, which not only discloses the color of the berry but also the texture and feel of it. What does a clot do when pressure is applied? It bursts, much like the first blackberry of the season would.

You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet (…) Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for

In lines five through seven, the speaker draws the reader into the memory. Heaney uses personification here. While summer does not actually have blood, the blackberry juice represents the vitality of the season. The speaker’s experience with eating the first blackberry of the season is almost sexual: it leaves him lusting for more.

Not long after the first ripened blackberry, the others would need picking, and it would send the speaker and his friends to pick as many as possible:

Then red ones inked up and that hunge Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.

The speaker and his friends would endure the scratches of briars and the discomfort of wet boots in order to make their way to the blackberry patches, but it did not bother them. They were not discerning when it came to the type of container they would take with them; so long as the containers could fit a fair share of blackberries, they would carry it with them.

Lines 11-13

Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills (…) Until the tinkling bottom had been covered

The speaker discloses that the blackberry patches are out of the way, and the task of picking could be laborious. Heaney uses a simile to describe how the blackberries looked in the speaker’s pails.

Lines 14-16

With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned (…) With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.

Line fourteen also contains alliteration ; Heaney repeats the letter b in neighboring words, emphasizing the image of the blackberries that looked like eyes in a bucket. Heaney was known for his use of literary devices, and this poem is no exception. The next line of ‘Blackberry-Picking’ contains an allusion to one of the most famous and deadliest pirates in history: Bluebeard. Heaney extends the metaphor of summer’s blood into this line. After the speaker and his friends have picked the blackberries in the patch, they have the blood of the fruit on their hands, much like Bluebeard after one of his famous battles. This pirate image continues into the next line. The speaker says,

Lines 17-24

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre. But when the bath was filled we found a fur, A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache. (…) That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.

Just as a pirate would hoard his treasure, the speaker hoards his, too.

Lines eighteen through twenty-four juxtapose the first seventeen lines of the poem. The first half of the work is filled with life; however, the last section details the inevitable: the fruits cannot stay ripe forever. This change in tone is interpreted in one single word: but. After picking as many berries as possible, the berries would begin to rot and ferment.

The speaker and his friends could not only see the fruit turn bad, but they could also smell it: “The juice was stinking too.” Heaney ends the poem on a particular melancholy note. Nature is cyclical, as these final lines show. While the speaker always had hope that the berries would not go so quickly, he knew that every year would be the same as the previous.

Throughout this piece, Heaney engages with themes of youth and nature. The poet brings these two themes together as he describes and emphasizes moments from his youth. He recalls what it was like when the blackberries would ripen, and he’d spend time outside picking them. There is a great deal of nostalgia in this poem for lost youth. It also alludes to the unstoppable progression of time. The blackberries can’t stay forever, just as one’s youth will always end.

Structure and Form

Depending on the edition,  ‘Blackberry-Picking’ is either in one long stanza that contains twenty-four lines or in two stanzas . When structured in stanzas, the first stanza contains sixteen lines, and the second contains only eight, making it an octave . Heaney wrote the poem in iambic pentameter , which means each line contains five feet with two syllables each. The syllables are unstressed, followed by a stressed one. ‘Blackberry-Picking’ follows a set rhyme scheme of aa bb cc, etc.

Literary Devices

Throughout  ‘Blackberry-Picking’, the poet makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to:

• Alliteration : occurs when the poet repeats the same consonant sound at the beginning of words. For example, “blobs burned” and “first” and “flesh.”
• Caesura : can be seen when the poet inserts a pause into the middle of a line. For example, “ Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger” and “I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair.” 
• Enjambment : occurs when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping point—for example, the transition between lines one and two as well as lines three and four.

Historical Background

Seamus Heaney filled his poetry with images of the natural world, and this poem is no exception. One can even assume that the speaker in this poem is Heaney himself. The son of farmers, Heaney spent much of his time roaming the fields and pastures on his family’s land.

The tone is contemplative and nostalgic. The speaker is spending time reminiscing on memories that mean a great deal to him and readers will likely find themselves connecting to his powerful experiences.

The purpose is to explore the powerful memories of childhood, especially as they relate to nature and change. Although the poet is engaged with specific experiences, he’s alluding to something broader and far more universalu002du002dthe progression of time and the inevitability of change.

The meaning is that youth and joy are fleeting. The poet uses the image of himself picking blackberries as a way of alluding to this fact. He feels nostalgic for the past but is also well aware that there is no way to return to it.

There are a few similes in ‘Blackberry-Picking.’  These include comparisons like “flesh was sweet / Like thickened wine,” “dark blobs burned / Like a plate of eyes,” and “ our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s. “

Similar Poetry

Readers who enjoyed  ‘Blackberry-Picking’  should also consider reading some other Seamus Heaney poems . For example:

• ‘ The Other Side ‘ – is a depiction of the sectarianism between Protestants and Catholics in the 70s by looking back to the poet’s youth.
• ‘ Out of the Bag ‘ – a complex, touching poem that speaks on the pains and joys of birth, life, sickness, and death.
• ‘ Exposure ‘ – discusses the poet’s role in a society that is tearing itself apart and how he might contribute helpfully to the  discourse  of the time.

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Thank you. I’m glad I’m right about Bluebeard, wife killer.

The allusion made in the poem was not Bluebeard, not Blackbeard. Bluebeard was a wealthy man who commonly murdered his wives, thus “our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s” as a hint to the stickiness of blood. Furthermore to note, Bluebeard was based on a French knight named Gilles de Rais–who infamously kidnapped and tortured young boys.

You’re quite right! Thank you, Pearl.

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Jenson, Jamie. "Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/seamus-heaney/blackberry-picking/ . Accessed 7 September 2024.

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Blackberry-Picking Summary & Analysis by Seamus Heaney

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

"Blackberry-Picking" was written by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney and first published in 1966, in the collection Death of a Naturalist . The poem depicts a seemingly innocent childhood memory of picking blackberries in August. Written from an adult's point of view, the poem uses this experience of picking blackberries and watching them spoil as an extended metaphor for the painful process of growing up and losing childhood innocence.

• Read the full text of “Blackberry-Picking”

The Full Text of “Blackberry-Picking”

“blackberry-picking” summary, “blackberry-picking” themes.

Growing Up and the Transience of Youth

• Before Line 1

Adult Wisdom and Acceptance

• Lines 17-24

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Blackberry-Picking”

Late August, given ... ... as a knot.

You ate that ... ... Picking.

Then red ones ... ... bleached our boots.

Lines 11-15

Round hayfields, cornfields ... ... plate of eyes.

Lines 15-16

Our hands were ... ... sticky as Bluebeard's.

Lines 17-21

We hoarded the ... ... would turn sour.

Lines 22-24

I always felt ... ... they would not.

“Blackberry-Picking” Symbols

Blackberries

• Lines 2-8: “the blackberries would ripen. / At first, just one, a glossy purple clot / Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. / You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet / Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it / Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for / Picking.”
• Line 10: “briars scratched”
• Lines 14-15: “green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned / Like a plate of eyes”
• Lines 15-16: “Our hands were peppered / With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.”
• Line 17: “the fresh berries”
• Line 19: “our cache”
• Line 20: “The juice”
• Line 21: “The fruit,” “ fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.”
• Lines 23-24: “all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. / Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.”

• Line 5: “its flesh was sweet”
• Line 6: “Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it”
• Lines 15-16: “ Our hands were peppered / With thorn pricks,”

• Line 16: “Bluebeard's”

“Blackberry-Picking” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

Extended metaphor, alliteration.

• Line 2: “F,” “f”
• Line 3: “f”
• Line 5: “f,” “f”
• Line 10: “b,” “b,” “b”
• Line 14: “b,” “b,” “b”
• Line 15: “p,” “p”
• Line 16: “p,” “p”
• Line 17: “b,” “b”
• Line 18: “B,” “b,” “f,” “f,” “f”
• Line 19: “f”
• Line 21: “f,” “f,” “s,” “f,” “s”
• Line 22: “f,” “f”
• Line 24: “kn,” “n”
• Line 1: “v,” “v,” “n,” “n”
• Line 2: “F,” “f,” “b,” “b,” “n”
• Line 3: “f,” “t,” “t,” “l,” “p,” “p,” “l,” “l”
• Line 4: “r,” “r,” “r”
• Line 5: “t,” “t,” “f,” “t,” “t,” “f,” “t”
• Line 7: “t,” “t,” “t”
• Line 8: “ck,” “k”
• Line 9: “t ,” “t,” “k,” “c,” “t,” “t”
• Line 10: “b,” “s,” “s,” “ss,” “b,” “b,” “s”
• Line 11: “f,” “f,” “t,” “t”
• Line 12: “kk,” “ck,” “c”
• Line 13: “t,” “t”
• Line 14: “b,” “b,” “b,” “b”
• Line 15: “p,” “r,” “p,” “pp,” “r”
• Line 16: “th,” “th,” “p,” “ck,” “p,” “ck,” “B,” “b”
• Line 18: “B,” “wh,” “b,” “w,” “f,” “w,” “f,” “f”
• Line 19: “g,” “f,” “g,” “g”
• Line 20: “ff”
• Line 21: “f,” “t,” “f,” “t,” “s,” “t,” “f,” “t,” “s”
• Line 22: “f,” “t,” “k,” “c,” “t,” “t,” “f”
• Line 23: “t,” “ll,” “l,” “l,” “l,” “l,” “t,” “t”
• Line 24: “kn,” “n,” “t.”
• Line 3: “o,” “o”
• Line 4: “o,” “o,” “o”
• Line 6: “i,” “i,” “oo,” “a,” “i,” “i”
• Line 7: “u,” “o,” “u”
• Line 8: “i,” “i,” “e,” “e,” “i,” “u,” “u”
• Line 9: “i,” “i,” “a,” “i,” “o”
• Line 11: “ie,” “ie,” “o,” “o”
• Line 12: “e,” “e,” “e”
• Line 13: “i,” “i,” “o,” “o,” “o”
• Line 14: “o,” “o,” “o”
• Line 15: “i,” “e”
• Line 16: “i,” “i,” “i”
• Line 19: “u,” “u,” “u”
• Line 20: “ui,” “oo”
• Line 21: “ui,” “e,” “e,” “e”
• Line 22: “i,” “y”
• Line 23: “o”
• Line 24: “Ea,” “ea,” “ee,” “o”
• Line 3: “a glossy purple clot”
• Line 4: “Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.”
• Lines 5-6: “sweet / Like thickened wine:”
• Line 7: “Leaving stains upon the tongue”
• Line 8: “red ones inked up”
• Line 10: “briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.”
• Line 11: “Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills”
• Lines 13-16: “the tinkling bottom had been covered / With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned / Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered / With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.”
• Lines 18-20: “a fur, / A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache. / The juice was stinking too.”
• Line 21: “the sweet flesh would turn sour.”
• Line 23: “all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.”
• Line 4: “hard as a knot”
• Lines 14-15: “big dark blobs burned / Like a plate of eyes.”
• Line 16: “our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.”

Onomatopoeia

• Line 13: “tinkling”
• Line 16: “thorn pricks,” “Bluebeard's”
• Lines 1-2: “sun / For”
• Lines 3-4: “clot / Among”
• Lines 5-6: “sweet / Like”
• Lines 6-7: “it / Leaving”
• Lines 7-8: “for / Picking”
• Lines 8-9: “hunger / Sent”
• Lines 9-10: “jam-pots / Where”
• Lines 11-12: “potato-drills / We”
• Lines 13-14: “covered / With”
• Lines 14-15: “burned / Like”
• Lines 15-16: “peppered / With”
• Lines 20-21: “bush / The”
• Lines 22-23: “fair / That”
• Line 1: “August, given”
• Line 2: “week, the”
• Line 3: “first, just one, a”
• Line 4: “others, red, green, hard”
• Line 6: “wine: summer's”
• Line 8: “Picking. Then”
• Line 9: “cans, pea tins, jam-pots”
• Line 11: “hayfields, cornfields”
• Line 14: “ones, and”
• Line 15: “eyes. Our”
• Line 16: “pricks, our”
• Line 19: “fungus, glutting”
• Line 20: “too. Once”
• Line 21: “fermented, the”
• Line 22: “crying. It”
• Line 24: “keep, knew”
• Line 24: “Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.”

“Blackberry-Picking” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Thickened wine
• Potato-drills
• (Location in poem: Line 3: “clot”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Blackberry-Picking”

Rhyme scheme, “blackberry-picking” speaker, “blackberry-picking” setting, literary and historical context of “blackberry-picking”, more “blackberry-picking” resources, external resources.

An Introduction to Holy Communion — "Blackberry-Picking" includes religious symbolism referencing the Christian tradition of Holy Communion. Learn about the history and significance of Holy Communion, also called the Eucharist or Lord's Supper. 

Seamus Heaney's 1995 Nobel Lecture — The author of "Blackberry-Picking" won the Nobel Prize in 1995. Read his speech upon the occasion, in which he references influences like John Keats.

Obituary: Seamus Heaney — Read about the life of the poem's author.

History of The Troubles in Ireland — Although "Blackberry-Picking" does not explicitly address the Troubles, these events were ongoing throughout Seamus Heaney's career. Other writings of his do speak to these events. Learn about the history. 

The Folktale of Bluebeard — "Blackberry-Picking" makes an allusion to Bluebeard, a folktale about a man who kills his wives one after the other. Read the tale.

An Introduction to the Belfast Group — Learn more about The Belfast Group, which informed a new generation of writers in Northern Ireland, including Seamus Heaney. 

LitCharts on Other Poems by Seamus Heaney

Death of a Naturalist

Mid-Term Break

Out of the Bag

Personal Helicon

Requiem for the Croppies

Storm on the Island

The Tollund Man

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A Short Analysis of Seamus Heaney’s ‘Blackberry-Picking’

By Dr Oliver Tearle

Seamus Heaney’s ‘Blackberry-Picking’ is one of the great twentieth-century poems about disappointment, or, more specifically, about that moment in our youth when we realise that things will never live up to our high expectations. Heaney uses the specific act of picking blackberries to explore this theme.

You can read ‘Blackberry-Picking’ here ; below we offer a brief analysis of Heaney’s poem in terms of its language, meaning, and principal themes.

‘Blackberry-Picking’: summary

In summary, ‘Blackberry-Picking’ is divided into two stanzas: the first focuses on the picking of the blackberries and the speaker’s memories of the experience of picking them, eating them, and taking them home. The second stanza then reflects on what happened once the blackberries had been hoarded in a bath placed in a ‘byre’ or shed.

The speaker recalls the sense of disappointment he and his fellow blackberry-pickers felt when they discovered that the berries had fermented and a fungus was growing on the fruit. He says that this made him sad, and he came to realise that this would always happen: soon after the berries had been picked, they would go rotten.

‘Blackberry-Picking’: analysis

But ‘Blackberry-Picking’ suggests that youth’s hopeful optimism is about ‘tasting’ life more generally, just as the speaker literally tastes the blackberries. Note that when he does, he describes the ‘flesh’ of the blackberries and how ‘sweet’ it was.

Of course, fruit does have ‘flesh’ and blackberries are sweet, but the word, especially given the speaker’s talk of ‘lust’ in the next line, also calls to mind a sexual awakening. Tasting the blackberries – juicy, voluptuous, sweet – is a sensual experience, much like our first kiss or our first sexual experience. After that first thrill, there is no other.

One of the masterly things about ‘Blackberry-Picking’ as a poem, in fact, is the way in which Heaney hints at the deeper significance of the act without, as it were, laying it on with a trowel. Late August – the last gasps of summer before autumn and that ‘back to school’ feeling returns at the end of the summer holidays – is an apt time to begin experiencing a sense of disillusionment with life, but it is a fact that this is when blackberries are ripe to be picked.

Similarly, the fruit-picking calls to mind the biblical story from the Book of Genesis, that loss of paradise brought on when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree: they gained worldly knowledge, but in doing so lost their innocence.

But Heaney doesn’t choose to overstress this, any more than the fact that the berries – placed in a bath in a shed – are associated with the infant Jesus lying in his manger in the stable, that setting of a million nativity plays (and Jesus’ time on earth, of course, culminated in his self-sacrifice that was made necessary by Adam and Eve’s fruity temptation and subsequent Fall). These things are roughly at the back of our minds when we read Heaney’s poem, perhaps, but he does not insist that we understand or analyse ‘Blackberry-Picking’ in terms of such possible biblical resonances.

The only explicit comparison made with other literature is to the notorious figure from French folk tales, Bluebeard, who had a habit of murdering his wives; the sticky deep red juice of the blackberries on the speaker’s hands is like the blood on Bluebeard’s hands. (There might even be a faint recollection of Angus’ description of another murderer, Macbeth : ‘Now does he feel / His secret murders sticking on his hands’.) Life and death, sex and murder, procreation and destruction, are thus bound up in Heaney’s description of the blackberry-picking.

The disillusionment is also subtly conveyed through Heaney’s use of rhyming couplets – or rather, couplets that don’t quite rhyme. Most of them are instead off-rhymes or pararhymes at best: sun/ripen , sweet/it , byre/fur , cache/bush , and so on. As in Wilfred Owen’s war poems, the pararhyme suggests that something is not quite right, and rhyme seems too neat and glib a way of rendering such an unsettling and disillusioning experience.

With one exception ( clots/knots early on in the poem), we have to wait until the final couplet until we get a full rhyme: rot/not . And this is because by now the speaker has come to terms with his disillusionment and can face it squarely in the face, especially now he’s a bit older.

‘Blackberry-Picking’ helped to make Seamus Heaney a success almost overnight, along with the other poems in his first volume. We hope this analysis has offered some suggestion of why it is such a triumph of a poem, such a satisfying portrayal of disappointment.

For more of Heaney’s classic early poetry, see our discussion of ‘Digging’ here . For more meaningful poetry about fruit, see our analysis of Blake’s poem about resentment and anger, ‘A Poison Tree’ . We’ve also offered some advice for writing better English Literature essays here.

Image: Seamus Heaney in the studio with his portrait by Colin Davidson. Painted in 2013. Via Frankenthalerj  on Wikimedia Commons .

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9 thoughts on “A Short Analysis of Seamus Heaney’s ‘Blackberry-Picking’”

A superb analysis of the poem, highlighting some of the implicit messages and allusions within the wording and structure:). Thank you!

Thanks, Sarah! Much appreciated, as always :)

Reblogged this on vequinox .

Wonderful detailed analysis.

Very insightful. Really enjoyed reading this!

He shouldn’t have tried to keep the blackberries, like all fruit, in fact all food, they do rot, mould, decay, eventually. Raspberries are worse, they are a disappointment, they turn almost immediately to mush. Did he write one about raspberries?

On Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 3:01 PM, Interesting Literature wrote:

> interestingliterature posted: “A critical reading of a classic Heaney poem > Seamus Heaney’s ‘Blackberry-Picking’ is one of the great twentieth-century > poems about disappointment, or, more specifically, about that moment in our > youth when we realise that things will never live up to o” >

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Home / Poetry / Blackberry Picking Poem Analysis | Seamus Heaney

Blackberry Picking Poem Analysis | Seamus Heaney

In his poem “Blackberry-Picking”, Seamus Heaney creates an in-depth analysis of nature, mortality, and the fleeting nature of human desire. Heaney takes us on a journey of picking blackberries from the initial excitement to the eventual disappointment and decay. The poet explains everything with the help of vivid imagery and sensory language.

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Historical Background of The poem “Blackberry Picking”

The poem “Blackberry-Picking” was published in 1966 during a time of great social and political upheaval in Ireland. The poem is about the author’s experiences. Seamus Heaney grew up on a farm in County Derry, Northern Ireland where he had often picked blackberries with his family and friends.

The mid-1960s was a period of significant cultural change in the Republic of Ireland. It is also known as the “Celtic Revival”. It sought to reclaim and celebrate Ireland’s traditional culture and heritage. Heaney along with other Irish writers and poets of the time invented a new kind of poetry that was both rooted in Irish culture and modern in its style and content.

There was also increasing tension between Catholics and Protestants. Ultimately, it led to the decades-long conflict known as “The Troubles”. In his poem “Blackberry-Picking”, Seamus Heaney talks about the political and social context and creates an analysis of themes of identity, history and conflict.

Summary of The poem “Blackberry Picking”

However, the tone shifts to one of disappointment and sadness as the poem progresses. The blackberries begin to rot and decay. The speaker reflects on the fleeting nature of desire and the inevitability of death and decay. Heaney uses the blackberries as a symbolic metaphor for human desire and the transience of life.

Analysis of The poem “Blackberry Picking”

The tone of the poem changes in the next lines. There is a sense of sadness and disappointment. The blackberries begin to rot and decay. It reflects that change is inevitable. Seamus Heaney uses this decay as a symbol of the transience of life. It is also a metaphor for the fleeting nature of human desire. The once-juicy blackberries become “a rat-grey fungus” and the speaker realises that “the sweet flesh would turn sour” .

Themes in the Poem “Blackberry Picking”

Themes of desire and transience.

The important and central themes of the poem are desire and its temporariness. The poet uses blackberries as a symbol of human desire. In the beginning, the poem explores the joy of pursuit but at the end, it shows disappointment of eventual loss. The pickers are driven by their desire for sweet ripe fruit but this desire is ultimately frustrated by the decay. 

Theme of Mortality

Complex human emotions, relationship between humans and nature.

Nature is directly linked to human emotions. The poet illustrates the ways in which our desires and actions impact the natural world. Seamus Heaney also uses the blackberry as a symbol of the natural world to show an analysis report of manners in this poem; he shows how we interact with nature and how we impact the environment around us.

Symbols in the Poem “Blackberry Picking”

The symbol of blackberries, the symbol of rat-grey fungus.

The rat-grey fungus that grows on the blackberries is another important symbol in the poem. The fungus represents decay and death. It serves as a purpose of a reminder; a reminder of the impermanence of life. It emphasises that humans are mortals and that all things must eventually decay and die. The symbol of rat-grey fungus creates a sense of unease and sadness in the reader.

The Symbol of Wasps 

Literary devices in the poem “blackberry picking”, imagery in the poem.

The poet contains many wonderful images. Firstly, the Blackberry itself is a wonderful image. Heaney uses vivid sensory language to describe the blackberries. The poet enhances the imagination of readers by sketching a detailed picture of blackberries. He describes the blackberries as “glossy purple clot[s]” with “juicy stalks” and “a fur of prickles” . This imagery helps to bring the reader into the world of the poem and to create a sense of intimacy with the natural world.

Metaphor in the Poem

Blackberry-Picking

Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots. Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills We trekked and picked until the cans were full, Until the tinkling bottom had been covered With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s. We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre. But when the bath was filled we found a fur, A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache. The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour. I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.

Summary of Blackberry-Picking

Analysis of literary devices used in “blackberry-picking”.

“ Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.”

“Until the tinkling bottom had been covered With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.”

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “Blackberry-Picking”

Quotes to be used.

“Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.”

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Blackberry Picking

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Analysis: “Blackberry Picking”

The poem is a childhood memory recounted by an adult speaker; the adult, in the present, recalls the child of his past. This creates an immediate tonal complexity as the maturity of adult consciousness gives a sophisticated description of not only childhood naiveté but also the loss of that naiveté. Because the adult speaker details his childhood ingenuity, the voice presents both melancholy and irony . It is the voice of experience documenting inexperience.

The poem, as a recollection, opens with its distinctive setting . The speaker establishes the time of year—late summer turning to autumn—and the tempestuous weather. An artful enjambment takes this description into the second line, which reveals the true opening of the story: the beginning of blackberry-picking season. The line “At first, just one” (Line 3) works like the opening notes of a symphony; here the reader sees the season beginning to unfold.

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Seamus Heaney Poems

An analysis of blackberry-picking anonymous college.

In Seamus Heaney’s poem, “Blackberry-Picking”, an interpretation of the poem could lead one to believe that the poem is elegy to the children who will grow up and be made rotten by the world over time. The message is captured in Heaney’s feelings emitted in each stanza, the use of literary devices and on the metaphorical and literal levels of the poem.

The poem is comprised of two stanzas; the first stanza evokes a sense of ignorant bliss while the second stanza acts somewhat as a contrast to the first. In stanza two, there is a hope that the fruit will not rot, but also a realization that there will always be decay. In lines five to seven of the first stanza, it is said that the fruit is “sweet”, but the narrator then goes on to say that it left a “stain upon the tongue”. At this point the speaker is pleased by the taste of the fruit and seems unbothered by the fact that it has permanently tainted him. In line 10, the narrator is running around in search of more berries; however, as he or she and someone else are doing so, they are “scratched” and their boots are “bleached”. Even though they are being hurt, the characters continue in search for more berries. In stanza two, the emotion of despair is echoed in the dreary...

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Blackberry-Picking Poem by Seamus Heaney Summary, Notes and Line by Line Explanation in English

Introduction.

Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s poem “Blackberry-Picking” was first published in the collection Death of a Naturalist in 1966. A seemingly simple childhood recollection of picking blackberries in August is depicted in the poem. The poem, which is written from an adult’s perspective, utilizes the experience of harvesting blackberries and seeing them decay as an extended metaphor for the difficult process of maturing and losing innocence.

About the poet

The speaker talks about gathering blackberries in late August after lots of rain and sunshine had matured the fruit. The poem opens with the beginning of ripening blackberries, indicating the hope of a fruitful harvest. The speaker watches the blackberries, noting their different colors, including one that is a “glossy purple clot” among others that are red and green and as firm as knots.

The speaker recounts the feeling of eating the first ripe blackberry, which felt sweet and rich like “thickened wine.” The juiciness and sweetness of the fruit capture the spirit of summer, leaving the speaker wanting to pick more. The speaker and others go out to harvest the blackberries as they transition from purple to red while carrying containers like milk cans, pea tins, and jam pots. But while picking the blackberries, they come across briars that itch and moist grass that stains their boots.

The speaker and others continue their blackberry picking journey through numerous fields, including hayfields, cornfields, and potato drills. Blackberries are picked till the cans are full, and green berries are found in the bottom of the cans. The bigger, darker berries, or “big dark blobs,” stand out clearly from the smaller, greener berries. Picking blackberries, however, has a price because their hands are now covered in thorn pricks and their palms have turned sticky, resembling the hands of Bluebeard, a literary character known for his atrocities.

The word “trekked” implies dedication and effort as pickers navigate through fields looking for the tastiest blackberries. The word “until” being used repeatedly draws attention to how persistent and ongoing their picking activity was. The vivid imagery of blackberry cans and the description of ripe ones as “big dark blobs burned” give a feeling of plenty and richness. The word “burned” intensifies the illustration and creates a visual and sensory contrast between the unripe and ripe blackberries. The connection of sticky hands to Bluebeard, a dark and sinister character from folklore, serves multiple roles. The sticky palms may represent shame or the adverse effects of indulgence, implying that there are consequences to the pursuit of pleasure. The mention of thorn pricks on the pickers’ hands emphasizes the physical pain and sacrifices made throughout the picking process. These components contrast with the first pleasure of juicy blackberries and create reality.

From the initial joy of picking blackberries to the disappointment and realization of impermanence that follow, the poem changes its tone and mood. The idea that the berries are being “hoarded” conveys a desire to conserve and savor them, reflecting the desire of humans to hang on to enjoyable experiences. This intention is nevertheless disrupted by the finding of the rat-grey fungus and the smell of fermenting juice, emphasizing the fleeting nature of pleasure and abundance. A dramatic and ominous image of the rat-grey fungus “glutting on our cache” is painted, signifying deterioration, waste, and the invasion of undesired things. The contrast between the initial thrill of “hoarding” the fresh berries and the ultimate disappointment when they go bad illustrates the briefness of pleasure and the temporary nature of happiness. The line, “I always felt like crying,” which expresses the speaker’s emotional reaction, evokes a sense of melancholy and loss. Because of the bittersweet character of human experiences, the sadness of damaged blackberries is used as a metaphor for the disappointments and frustrations that life may offer. The lines, “It wasn’t fair / That all the lovely canfuls smelled of rot” express the need for justice and the disappointment felt when expectations are not met. This feeling is prevalent in human experiences since people frequently struggle with life’s imperfections and unpredictability.�

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Analysis of Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney

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Blackberry-Picking

for Philip Hobsbaum

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Analysis of "Blackberry Picking" by Seamus Heaney

“Blackberry-Picking”

For Philip Hobsbaum

(Seamus Heaney)

Written by an English, contemporary poet in 1966, “Blackberry-Picking” is originally from Seamus Heaney’s first collection, "Death of a Naturalist ”. As in many of Heaney’s poetic works, the poem “Blackberry-Picking” paints a simple childhood event where nature plays a significant role. The poem may be the author’s personal account describing his past experience of blackberry-picking in the country-side at Mossbawn in England. The author uses simple, descriptive language as well as a myriad of literary elements to convey vivid images in the mind of the readers and to evoke certain emotions from the readers. The poem is structured with 24 lines divided into two stanzas of different lengths. Conceit is used throughout the whole poem to compare the process of blackberry-picking to that of growing-up. Both events are inevitable, and as the poem progresses to the second stanza, the process of blackberry- picking changes from a positive childhood experience to a negative one from the eye of the now grown-up narrator. Uses of metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, repetition, and imagery also help the author effectively demonstrates the relationship between childlike hope and the disappointment that followed when he became older.

The narrator starts by directly indicating the setting of the poem.

This is a preview of the whole essay

In a rural area, a young child blackberry-picks in “late August” , the season of the ripening of blackberries due to ‘heavy rain and sun’.  Heaney mentions colours like green, red, and purple to depict the different stages of blackberry ripening. Discarding the green and red blackberries that are still “hard as knot” and not ready to be eaten, the narrator pours his love and attention to the “glossy” purple clot’ which he personifies and describes as being sweet “flesh”. Words like “flesh, “blood”, and “ glossy purple clot” all describe the fine textures of the fully ripened blackberries with the description of the narrator’s sight and touch.

These berries leave “stains upon the tongue” when eaten, and this tempts the narrator to eat more. “Milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots” all serve as tools to hold the blackberries. Blackberry-picking continues in “hayfields, cornfields, and potato-drills” until “the cans are full, until the tinkling bottom had been covered with green ones”. The top of these metal cans are filled with big dark blobs burned like a plate of eyes”. Here, alliteration is used to emphasize the superiority of the purple blackberries to the unripe ones.

The tone of the poem changes to a negative one with the mentioning of “Bluebeard” at the end of the last stanza. “Bluebeard” refers to a fairytale figure with a blue beard who kills all his wives. By referring to “Bluebeard”, the narrator may have wanted to compare his blue-stained hands to that of Bluebeard’s with a negative attitude.

        The narrator and his companion(s) “hoarded the fresh berries in the byre” but failed to do so later on when these blackberries started to get moldy and stink with “a rat-grey fungus, glutted on the cache”. By stating there is ‘fur’ in the rotting berries, the narrator suggests that berries live as humans and animals do. Wine is mentioned again by describing the rotting berries as the process of fermentation which results in the sour smell of the originally “sweet flesh”. Lines 22 and 23 use all five senses:   sight, smell, touch hearing, and, taste. At this stage, the narrator openly laments because of “all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot”. In the last line, the narrator is bitter and blames himself for not thinking better and hoping “each year” the berries won’t spoil.

        The poem suggests that pleasures in life are temporary, and this idea is less taken into consideration by young individuals which result in dramatic disappointments during their youth.  Thus, as “sweet flesh turns sour”,  childlike hope may turn into sour disappointment, and a positive childhood memory may change into a negative one over time.

Document Details

• Word Count 651
• Page Count 2
• Level International Baccalaureate
• Subject World Literature

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Blackberry Picking

Blackberry picking lyrics.

How to Format Lyrics:

• Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
• Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
• Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
• Use italics ( <i>lyric</i> ) and bold ( <b>lyric</b> ) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
• If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum

One of Heaney’s iconic naturalist lyrics from his first collection, Death of a Naturalist (1966). The collection was very successful, and remains in print today.

“Blackberry Picking” is told in the past tense, as the speaker recalls a childhood suffused with the outdoors, detailing the process of picking blackberries, but also the wider significance of that seemingly innocent activity. The inevitable process of decay becomes a metaphor for change and the fleetingness of hope.

Structure The poem is made up of twenty-four loosely rhymed couplets , with no division into stanzas. Only the last two lines form a perfect rhyming couplet that completes the poem. The first seventeen lines comprise description of the blackberries and the children’s search for them. The change in tone comes in line eighteen with the ‘rat-grey fungus’, the description of decay and the poet’s recollection of his childhood reaction; dashed hopes repeated every year.

Language and Imagery The voice is that of the adult poet looking back on his childhood. The first section uses sensuous language to describe the fruit, for example, ‘a glossy purple clot’. The second half is more emotive, with the negative mood achieved by the description of fungus and the unpleasant smell and the rot. The final couplet is not only a statement of disappointment at the spoiled fruit, but also a metaphor for the cycle of repeated hope and disappointment.

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

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Thinking Inductively: A Close Reading of Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry Picking"

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

This lesson uses Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry Picking" to ease students' fear of analyzing poetry by teaching them an inductive strategy to unlock meaning. First, students list and look for patterns among the images, diction, and figurative language they notice in the poem, and then "lump" list items into categories. They then apply these categories to the poem's structure to determine meaning. Next, students use an online tool to create graffiti drawings that represent the poem's message, supporting their conclusions with specifics from the poem. Once discussion of the poem is complete, students realize that they have just demonstrated their ability to explicate a poem in order to support a theme statement if asked to write about a poem's meaning.

This lesson plan was developed as part of a collaborative professional writing initiative sponsored by the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project (KMWP) at Kennesaw State University.

Featured Resources

Literary Graffiti Interactive : Using this online tool, students draw images about a text they are reading. They can also write a summary of the text, an explanation of their drawing, and how the drawing is significant to the text.

From Theory to Practice

In his article "The First Shall Be Last: Writing the Essay Backwards," Jeff House reminds us that "we cannot begin with the very thing we are trying to end with. We must tease out the answer, allowing the mind to go through its natural, and logical, procedure." If we expect students to determine a general statement themselves, they need to be taught how to "tease out the answer" by using what they do know as the key to unlocking what they don't know. When students are taught to read an unfamiliar poem inductively, they notice patterns emerge among the imagery, details, and figurative language, and when considered along with the poem's structure, these specifics lead to the theme. The analytical skills taught through this strategy not only enable students to make a theme statement and support it with specifics from the poem but also, as House states, "increase [a student's] ability to grasp the inner working of an artistic piece." Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

Blackboard, whiteboard, overhead projector, or chart for compiling class responses

• Homework Questions for “Blackberry Picking”
• Inductive Lesson: Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry Picking”
• Inductive Lesson Rubric

A poetry explication is a relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem.

Preparation

• Read the poem and complete the handout prior to teaching the lesson so you will be better able to anticipate and guide student thinking throughout the activity.
• Make copies of “ Blackberry Picking ” and the Inductive Lesson handout for students. If desired, make copies or an overhead transparency of the Homework Questions .
• Test the Literary Graffiti interactive on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.
• For background information on writing a formal poetry explication, see Poetry Explications .

Student Objectives

Students will

• review poetic techniques, including imagery, diction, details, figurative language, and structure.
• analyze a poem's techniques and analyze how they are used to indicate meaning.
• draw conclusions about a text's meaning after a careful consideration of the poet's techniques.
• symbolically illustrate their interpretation of the text and support it with specifics gleaned from the poem.
• present and discuss their interpretation with others.
• participate in a whole-class discussion of a text.

Session One

• Explain that the class will be walk through a strategy that will help them read a poem and determine its theme. Emphasize the importance of completing each step as you instruct them. Once they become familiar with the strategy, they will be able to apply it to other poems at a much faster speed.
• List the following literary terms on the board, and review them with students: imagery, details, diction, and figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, and rhyme). Structure will be discussed when you come to that stage of the lesson.
• Discuss with students how these elements are a poet’s tools, which the poet deliberately uses to not only draw the reader into the poem’s experience but also to reinforce the poem’s message.
• Distribute a copy of the Inductive Lesson handout to each student and instruct them to fold it vertically down the middle so that the words “I see . . .” are in front of them.
• Distribute a copy of the poem “ Blackberry Picking ” to each student.
• Explain that as you read students should listen and watch for words, images, and details that stand out to them, and have them underline these words as they read along. They should pay special attention to the sound devices they notice as the poem is read aloud. Suggest that they should not worry about what the poem is about at this point.
• Read (or have a student read) the poem to the class.
• After the oral reading is complete, allow the students a few minutes to read the poem again silently.
• After the students have familiarized themselves with the poem, ask them to list the things they “see” in the “I see . . .” column of the handout. You will need to model this for them; for instance, you might point out that the phrase “glossy purple clot” presents a very vivid image, so you included it on your sheet.
• Allow the students several minutes to complete their lists, once again reminding students not to worry about theme at this point. They should focus on listing those words, phrases, etc. that seem particularly striking and significant to them. Assure students that this process is much like brainstorming and there are no “wrong” responses.
• As an optional step, allow students to share items from their lists so that each student then has a nice long list before moving on to the next step.
• Next, introduce the process of “lumping.” Ask students to open up their worksheets so that they can see both columns of information.
• Instruct students to take the items in their lists and “lump” them into categories under the “Lumping” heading in the right column.
• Model this process for students by working through an example. For instance, the poem contains numerous references to decay, so next to number 1, write “decay” as a category and beneath it you might list “rat grey fungus,” “fermented,” and “smelt of rot” as supporting specifics.
• Allow students to work individually on lumping for a few minutes.
• Once students have had time to work through their lists, ask volunteers to share their categories and specifics. As students share their information, compile a list on the board. Some categories and specifics will overlap. Ask students not to worry, as this is just brainstorming.
• When students have exhausted their lists, turn to the poem’s pattern and structure. Explain to the students that when examining a poem’s details, diction, and imagery, a reader should also examine the poem’s pattern. “Blackberry-Picking,” for instance, is divided into two stanzas.
• Looking at the categories you have listed on the board, ask the students to determine which stanzas contain each category. Students will note that the first stanza contains specifics related to ripeness, blood, and lust, as the speaker describes the act of blackberry picking, while the second stanza contains specifics related to decay, sadness, and loss, as the speaker describes what happens to their bounty. Note that there is a definite shift in tone between the two stanzas.
• At this point, aware of the shift in tone between the two stanzas, students may have a sense of what Heaney is saying with this poem. Since the goal is to make them self-sufficient interpreters of text, you want to guide their thinking without imposing meaning.
• End the first session by summarizing what you have all determined so far: the first, longer stanza literally describes a berry picking expedition with imagery that is both very sensual (“its flesh was sweet,” “lust for / Picking”) and painful (“briars scratched,” “hands peppered / With thorn pricks”) while the second, shorter stanza is infused with imagery and diction dealing with decay and loss (“rat-grey fungus,” “the sweet flesh would turn sour”).
• Why is the first stanza longer than the second?
• Does the poem have a rhyme scheme? If so, what is it and what is its significance?
• Scan the poem. Does it have a deliberate meter? If so, what is it, and what is its significance? If not, why do you think Heaney chose not to give it a meter?
• Do you notice any sound devices? Alliteration? Assonance? Consonance? What is the significance of the devices your identify?

Session Two

• Display the Literary Graffiti interactive, or have students access the tool on individual computers. If computers are unavailable, complete this process by supplying the students with plain paper and colored markers.
• In the large left-hand box, students should draw a symbolic representation of the poem’s message.
• In the box titled “Summary of the Text,” ask students to write their theme statement. Remind them that a theme should be stated in a complete thought, not a single word.
• In the box below, they should write an explanation of their graffiti drawing.
• In the bottom right-hand box, ask students to explain the relationship of the graffiti to the text.
• Once completed, have students print their graffiti pages.
• Remind the class that the program will not save their work, so it must be printed out.
• After students have completed their work, arrange the class in small groups and have them share their graffiti pages with the other group members. Encourage them to refer to specifics from the poem to support their conclusions as they share with their group.
• Once the small group sharing is complete, have volunteers share their interpretations with the class, once again supporting their conclusions with specifics from the poem. Although their statements of the theme will certainly vary, students will likely recognize that “once off the bush,” the blackberries “fermented” and “turn[ed] sour” leading students to conclude that Heaney is commenting on the transience and brevity of some aspect of life, youth, or innocence.
• To conclude the lesson, lead the class in a discussion of the rhyme, meter, sound devices, and other style elements you asked the students to consider for homework. You might point out that the poem is written in couplets, but the end rhymes are not always exact. For instance, while “clot” and “knot” are exact rhymes, “pots” and “boots” are slant rhymes. Students should consider this choice and how it relates to theme as well as Heaney’s use of alliteration (”bleached . . . boots”), consonance (”trekked . . . picked”), and so forth.
• You might also ask the students to share their thoughts on why the first stanza is much longer than the second as well as the choice of title.
• Once you have exhausted the discussion of the poem, close the lesson by explaining to students that what they have just demonstrated is their ability to explicate a poem. By working inductively, they have gathered all the specifics they would need to support a theme statement if asked to write about a poem’s meaning. As they become more proficient with using this strategy, they will no longer need the worksheet; instead, they will be able simply to annotate the text as they read, and they will become instinctively aware of the patterns. Stress that this strategy not only works for poetry, but can also be applied to prose.
• Have students work with partners to find a poem to explicate and present to the class.
• Have students write a formal essay explicating “Blackberry Picking” or any other poem. Poems that are rich in imagery are best for student practice. Good choices would be Robert Frost’s “Out-Out,” Karl Shapiro’s “Autowreck,” or Sharon Olds’ “In the Subway.”
• Seamus Heaney, Nobel Laureate
• Seamus Heaney, from the Poetry Archive
• ReadWriteThink Calendar Entry for April 13: Seamus Heaney was born on this day in 1939.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• As students complete the different stages of the lesson, informally assess their learning by walking around the room to monitor their progress.
• If you wish to give them a grade for completing the lesson, use the Inductive Lesson Rubric to assess their effort and understanding.
• Calendar Activities
• Student Interactives
• Strategy Guides

Students focus on the figurative language in Heaney's poem, "Digging," and discuss the speaker's attitude, and how metaphor, simile, and image contribute to the poem.

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• Kindergarten K